Transforming Restaurant Meals Into Kitchen Creations

yummy

I love coming up with new ways to cook with some of my favorite ingredients, especially comfort foods. To me, a big wok full of curry is super comforting and was one of the dishes I made all the time when I moved into my first solo apartment. It’s warm, earthy, spicy and makes me feel good all over. Plus, it’s amazing for leftovers! So, when Mama Lam’s, a local food vendor making and selling their own Malaysian Curry Paste that I had the pleasure of meeting at the annual Queens Taste, event contacted me about partnering up, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to try cooking with their homemade, Malaysian curry paste and curating a couple of dishes to use their product in.

Crush the pistachios with either your hands or a mallet. A rolling pin works well too—this is very cathartic and a great way to take out your aggression. Ha!

After the fish has soaked, dip the salmon into the pistachios and coat on sides and top with the nuts

Place the salmon skin side down on a greased baking pan and bake for 20 minutes until the crust is set—The fish should be cooked through, but still a bit pink in the center and very moist. It will continue cooking for a few minutes once it comes out of the oven

Garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice over the top

This fish is delicious served all on its own with a fresh salad or some roasted asparagus, but is even better with some Curry Noodles!

Curry Noodles with Crispy Tofu

1 package of firm tofu, 14oz

1 pound of broad rice noodles

2 bell peppers, chopped

2 yellow onions, chopped

1 eggplant—chopped into bite sized pieces. I love to use Japanese or graffiti eggplant for this dish not only because of the beautiful color, but also because it has less water in it than an Italian eggplant, so it’ll be sweeter and stay firmer when cooked down

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp of fish sauce

1/2 jar of Mama Lam’s curry paste

1 tbsp of Sambal Olek chili sauce

1 bunch of scallions, chopped (reserve some for garnish)—also called green onion or spring onion in some supermarkets

1 can of coconut milk—do not use reduced fat as the texture and thickness of the sauce will be off. Plus, coconut milk is a healthy fat

Vegetable or peanut oil—any high heat oil will do such as canola, corn, grapeseed oil, etc.

The first step of this dish is to make the crispy tofu—who doesn’t like their tofu crispy?

Tofu has a lot of water, which is why it usually tastes bland. In fact, the biggest mistake that most cooks make when handling tofu is not getting rid of the excess water. This will never work! Even if you just want to marinade the tofu you’ll still need to do this step

Put the tofu between two paper towels and press. Repeat this process 2-3 times, and then let the tofu sit between the towels for at least 20 minutes to really draw out the moisture

Heat up your wok until it starts to smoke a little, then add the oil. It’s important that you don’t add your oil before this as you don’t want it to bubble up and burn you

Add the tofu to the wok and spread it out in a single layer—you should hear it sizzle. If there’s no sizzle, then your wok isn’t hot enough and your tofu will steam instead of crisp up

Let the tofu cook on one side for a couple min, then mix it up and repeat this process a few times until it’s crispy on all sides. This shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes or so

Put your tofu on a plate and place aside for later on

Heat your wok back up on the stove while you get the rest of your ingredients ready

Add some more oil, then add the garlic, ginger and scallions—this is the holy trinity of Asian dishes!

Let these sauté for a minute, then add the curry paste and heat through, followed by the onions, peppers and eggplant

Let the veggies cook for a few minutes, then add the fish sauce, chili sauce and coconut milk and stir until it becomes a homogenized sauce

Cook the curry for at least 10 minutes or longer depending on how thick you like your sauce—as it cooks the flavors of the salty fish sauce, spicy chilis, earthy curry and more will concentrate

Sorry I’ve been away for a few weeks, but work’s been crazy! This recipe is actually inspired by all of the craziness. I wanted something that was not only delicious, but also comforting. This lasagna is packed full of roasted vegetables, so it’s also a healthy dinner to serve your family. This recipe might seem like it has a lot of steps, but all of them are simple and can be multitasked. So if you want to feed a crowd, or have a lot of leftovers–which are delicious!–try this recipe for Roasted Vegetable Lasagna.

Ingredients:

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes—my favorite brand is San Marzano for its inherent sweetness, but any brand should be fine

½ teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

2 ½ teaspoons of dried oregano

1 tin of anchovy filets—it’s important that the anchovies are packed in oil as opposed to water since you want to flavor and richness of the oil to help flavor the sauce. Flat filets are also easier for melting into the oil

4-5 medium garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 pound of grape tomatoes—quartered whole tomatoes or cherry tomatoes could work in this dish too, but grape tomatoes are a nice size and roast beautifully in the oven

Salt and pepper

1 pound of cremini mushrooms, halved or quartered depending on size

2 small to medium zucchini, cut into half moons

2 small to medium yellow squash, cut into half moons

1 green pepper, sliced into strips

1 large onion, chopped roughly

1 pound of ricotta cheese—it might be tempting to use low fat here, but use whole milk ricotta—trust me, you’ll taste the difference!

1 cup of Parmesan cheese—shredded or grated as long as you’d eat it on your pasta

2 eggs

10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained—Make sure you squeeze as much water out of the spinach as you can

1 box of oven ready lasagna noodles

1 bag of shredded mozzarella—one of those Italian blends works too

1 small ball of fresh mozzarella (optional)

Olive oil

To Cook:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Toss tomatoes with 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 teaspoon of oregano and salt, and ½ teaspoon of black pepper

Spread tomatoes on a sheet pan and roast for 15-20 minutes

At the same time, use a second, larger sheet pan for the zucchini, squash, pepper and onion and increase to 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of oregano, and 1 teaspoon of pepper

Roast the veggies for around 30 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the components for the lasagna

Drop the heat to 375 degrees when the veggies come out of the oven

While the veggies are in the oven, add enough olive oil to a big sauté pan to coat the bottom and heat on medium-high heat

Add anchovies to the pan and break them up with a back of a wooden spoon—Don’t skip this step! Even if you don’t like anchovies, the high heat will melt the filets into the oil and it will give needed background and depth to your sauce

Once the anchovy is melted, add the garlic and brown for about a minute or two

Add the mushrooms—it’s important for mushrooms to be spread out for them to brown evenly. If they’re too crowded in the pan, then they’ll start to steam and turn rubbery

Once the mushrooms have cooked, season with a teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of black pepper,½ teaspoon of oregano

Add the crushed tomatoes to the pan and stir—you want the seasonings to be evenly spread throughout

Reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer until the roasted tomatoes are ready to come out of the oven, and then transfer tomatoes to the sauce

Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes

While the sauce is finishing up, you can work on the ricotta layer

In a large bowl, add ricotta cheese, parmesan, eggs, and spinach, as well as a teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper

Whisk all the ingredients together for about 3-4 minutes

Time to assemble the layers! In a 9×13 baking dish, spoon a bit of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish

Add the lasagna noodles to the dish in a single layer all the way across—I shingled a little and also got creative by using one noodle that I cracked to fill in empty crevices

The next layer should be some more tomato sauce

Next up is a layer of the roasted vegetables

After the vegetables should be a layer of the ricotta mixture—don’t skimp on the ricotta!

After the ricotta comes the cheese layer—add about ¼ of the bag of mozzarella cheese over the ricotta

Repeat the layering another 3 times, and top with a layer of noodles

For the final layer, add a thick layer of tomato sauce all over the top, followed by the rest of the cheese, and a handful of parmesan—for my top layer, I actually like to use some fresh mozzarella since it melts so beautifully and makes for a beautiful presentation

I place the whole thing onto a larger sheet tray so that if there’s spillage, it doesn’t go all over the oven floor

Bake in the oven at 375 degrees, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes

Let it cool for at least 5-10 minutes before you cut into it. In fact, lasagna is a great make-ahead dish that you can keep in the fridge for up to 2 days before heating it. If you plan to refrigerate, make sure you add an additional 10-12 minutes to the cooking time. Also, this makes for a pretty saucy lasagna, but if you want you can reserve some extra sauce and spoon it over the top of each piece as it’s served, and garnish with some extra parmesan. Now who wouldn’t want a piece of that beauty? Buon Appetito!